


tonight's the kind of night

by orphan_account



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-04 02:11:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmelina Moscato is a clumsy person, has been her whole life, but she never knew how much of a blessing it could be until now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tonight's the kind of night

The library job was a spur of the moment thing. 

Carm's just graduated college, with a degree in communications arts and sciences being all she has to show for four years of non stop work, and now she's jobless in Philadelphia with no clue what to do.

It's pure chance that she stumbles across the notice in the library window. Well, partly chance, partly clumsiness, because she was only going there to bring coffee to her roommate, Ali, not even to borrow a book. It works out better than expected when she literally trips on the steps leading up to the library's entrance, and catches herself with her face an inch away from the window, narrowly avoiding hot coffee pouring over her hands. She rights herself, and finds that she's come face to face with a sign taped to the glass:

Help wanted; ask inside.

Carm has rent due and thousands upon thousands of dollars of student debt that isn't going to pay itself, so she swings the door open, pauses by Ali to drop off the coffee, and heads straight for the reception desk.

The job's hers, after a ten minute chat with the manager, and she's told she can start on Monday.

 

Carm is an observant person. She notices patterns, trends in the behaviour of people around her. She's worked at the library for just under two weeks and already she's noticing how the Harry Potter books seem to have made a comeback, and how she's checking a copy out at least every other day. She notices how Ali's stopped asking her to get her coffee, instead opting to make the three block trek herself in the snow, and how she comes in a little later every night with her cheeks tinged pink from something other than the cold air. She notices the blonde who's roots are growing out, who sits poring over a textbook night after night in the library, and offers a smile eight out of ten times as she leaves.

She especially notices the blonde, and spends three days looking at her before she convinces herself that it's not creepy to look up her record in the library's database. She's not _trying_ to be creepy at least, all she wants is a name.

And a name she finds: Ella. Ella Masar.

She lets the name roll around her mouth a couple of time, before she catches herself and stops. She's never said more than two words to this girl.

She thinks she'd like to though.

It's perfectly reasonable to get to know someone who stops by your work every day. Say hi, ask how her studying's going, subtly flirt a little, it's simple really. Except Carm can't seem to manage it.

When Ella comes in Carm tries her hardest to look like she's busy, like that's somehow going to impress a college kid who only cares for passing exams right now. By default, that means Carm doesn't speak to her, and the flutter she feels in her stomach only intensifies with no outlet for it.

She needs to tell someone.

 

Ali was a great roommate through college, and an even better one after college, now that she's not stressed to the point of anger at any given time. As one of Carm's closest friends, she's always been her confidant over every issue in her life.

So that pattern should carry on to the flutter she feels in her stomach at the blonde girl (Ella, but it feels creepy to call her by her name) but Carm finds herself hesitating.

Ali should be her first choice, but what if what she's feeling is a phase? Carm's known who she likes and doesn't like her whole life, it's not her feelings towards the gender of the person she's second guessing, but her feelings towards this girl in particular. 

Love at first sight isn't real. It simply doesn't exist, as far as Carm's concerned. She's never fallen for somebody out of the blue, all she's ever had are friends who became more, who faded away into nothing. 

Dwelling on those lost friendships makes Carm's heart hurt, so she tries to avoid it. 

She's known Ali to date girls who she isn't friends with, which is why she would be perfect to advise Carm in this situation. 

Carm doesn't want to admit it, but she thinks that maybe the reason she won't tell is that she wants Ella to herself. She wants her to be a secret.

That thought in itself should be enough to make Carm stop in her tracks. Ella doesn't even know her.

 

It's fast approaching Christmas when Carm's attention is drawn to Ella blowing into the library like a hurricane, hair swept across her face from the wind, cheeks tinged pink from the cold, and gulping for air like she's run a marathon. Which she has, kind of, if the fifteen minute walk from the campus to the library counts as a marathon. Ella pauses for barely a second to catch her breath, and Carm takes that second to resume her work, for fear of being caught staring. She assumes Ella will make her way to her usual table, and settle in with a textbook for hours, like she usually does. Instead, Ella approaches the reception desk (cautiously, after all her haste) and clears her throat.

Carm looks up from the book she's been staring at and brushes her hair from her face in what she hopes is an endearing move.

Whether it is or it isn't, Ella's too flustered to notice anything right now.

“Hi, how can I help you?” Did Carm's voice shake? She's not sure.

“I'm looking for this textbook, _Essentials Of Biochemisty_. I have midterms next week and I've lost mine.”

Carm somehow manages to type the name of the book in correctly the first time, even under Ella's intense gaze, and she finds what she's looking for in a matter of seconds.

“Row four, shelf two, probably towards the left hand side.” Carm gestures towards the area.

Ella nods her thanks and turns around as if to walk off and find it, but stops in her tracks almost immediately. She turns back to face Carm with a weak - and slightly embarrassed, Carm thinks - laugh, “I don't know what that means.”

Carm takes a quick glance around the library, though she was going to offer her help whether it was busy or not. Thankfully the fact that it's almost empty means she won't risk losing her job.

“Here, I'll show you where it is.”

It doesn't take long for Carm to find the book, and it's absolutely worth it to see the worry drain from Ella's face, replaced by a look of intense gratitude.

It's even more worth it when Ella pulls her in for a hug, albeit a brief one, and mumbles a thank you into her hair.

Ella checks the book out and leaves almost immediately, but Carm can't wipe the smile off her face for the rest of the day.

She catches herself more than once remembering the encounter, and breaking into a grin, and no matter how hard she tries she can't stop Ali from noticing it.

“So who is it?”

They're watching America's Next Top Model when Ali asks, out of the blue, and Carm almost chokes on the chips she's been eating. Despite a minor coughing fit, she tries to remain as casual as possible.

“Who's what?” She can hear it herself, how unconvincing she sounds. 

“Who's got you smiling like a lovesick teenager again?”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Her voice is too shrill and she knows Ali doesn't believe her, she can see on her face that Ali doesn't believe her, so she steers the topic of conversation in another direction as fast as she can. In particular, she steers it towards Ali. “You've been staying out later recently. Is there something I should know about?” Carm keeps her tone light, gives Ali the opportunity to dodge whatever kind of bullet it is she's firing, but she rises to the bait. 

She might not mean to, but Ali's face turns a deep shade of purple and there's no denying that there's something she's hiding. Even Ali seems to sense that she has no chance, and appears to steady herself to tell Carm something.

“There's, uhm- there might be someone.” This turn of conversation is more than Carm could have hoped for. Not only is she avoiding mentioning Ella, but she's finally going to find out why Ali's been gone so much lately.

At least, she thinks she is, when Ali's phone conveniently (or inconveniently, depending on how you look at it) rings, and she disappears into the kitchen to answer it. 

Well, she's closer than she was, that's for sure.

 

Ella doesn't come to the library for four days after the incident (not that she's counting), and so Carm's heart has plenty of time to come down from the heights it's been soaring to. 

When Ella does appear again, she looks just as stressed as the last time Carm saw her. She seems to be so stressed, in fact, that an hour into her study session she pulls a small bible from her bag, and reads, and appears to pray.

Carm's heart sinks further, because if she's learnt anything in her life, it's that religious folk tend to avoid the path of delinquency known as lesbianism. She's never met a gay religious person, and there's a reason for that. She wishes she didn't know the reason for that but it's been preached at her since she was young.

God hates fags.

She heard it over and over again, sometimes directed at her, sometimes not, either way it cut deep every time, until she had no choice but to leave her childhood church at seventeen. To this day, Carm hasn't knowingly befriended anyone with a strong religious belief, because she couldn't stand to see the look in their eyes when she came out to them.

The same look she saw in the eyes of her childhood best friend, who said nothing but, “I'll pray for you,” before walking out of Carm's bedroom and never speaking to her again. 

A cough jolts Carm out of the memory, and she's glad because it still hurts.

Ella's standing, Essentials of Biochemistry resting on the desk between them.

“Can I renew this for one more week?” Ella almost sounds like she's begging, and Carm has to try not to laugh.

“That's no problem, no problem at all.”

“It's just, I thought it would be a good idea to minor in biochemistry, but I'm falling behind, and I don't want to quit it because my family told me I'd never be able to do it in the first place and-”

“Ella, it's fine. I can renew it for you.” Ella stops her rant, startled.

“You know my name?”

That's all it take for Carm to begin to blush furiously as she tries to backtrack, “I mean- because, you know just from the records when you borrowed it last time I just noticed it.” Ella's grin appears more confident now that she's made Carm blush like this. Carm just keeps her head down and types furiously to renew the book, to finish this whole embarrassing ordeal as soon as possible.

“There you go,” she hands the book to Ella.

“Thanks, Carm.” This time it's Carm's turn to look shocked, and she raises a questioning eyebrow. Ella just winks and reaches across the desk to tap Carm's name badge with the pen she's been holding.

Carm thanks the higher powers that Ella turns to leave almost immediately and doesn't look back, because if she turned around she would see Carm, red as a tomato, with her face buried in her hands.

So Ella's religious, but for the first time in her life it's not discouraging Carm from wanting to befriend her. If anything it's 

 

 

When Carm returns home, she finds that Ali's in, which has become odd recently, with her spending so much time with the mysterious someone, but Ali isn't alone. There's another woman on the couch with her arm slung along the back of it, Ali leaning into the touch. Carm coughs to make herself known.

Both bodies on the couch jump and turn to face her, and Carm recognises the woman. She's the one who works at that coffee place Ali's been spending so much time at. It makes so much sense now. 

Ali's the first to speak, “Carm, this is Ashlyn. Ashlyn, this is my roommate Carm.” Apparently a name is all she's going to get, but Carm's not stupid. She can put the pieces together just as well as the next person. She says a polite hello, glances Ashlyn up and down quickly, and makes a beeline for her bedroom. 

Obviously not before she can turn around, shoot a thumbs up and wink exaggeratedly, while mouthing “nice job” to Ali. Ashlyn's hot. She's done well.

Carm's a little less happy for her when she hears them later. It wouldn't be so bad if they're actually made it to Ali's room, but they're having sex on the couch so she can't even slip out for a few hours until they're done. Instead, she can only put her earphones in and blast her music and try not to think about Ella.

It doesn't work of course, and for the first time since they've met, Carm dreams about Ella.

She dreams of sweeping her off her feet, and surprising her with a kiss and when she wakes up she can still feel the tingle on her lips.

It's nice at first, feeling as though she has a part of Ella with her, but it becomes a nuisance fast.

Mostly when Ella walks into the library that afternoon and the tingle that's still there, faint but present, on her lips shoots down her spine and she chokes on her words.

Ella just smiles like it's somehow endearing, which Carm doesn't understand, but she's not going to complain. Especially not when, at closing time Ella's the last to leave, and as she does she throws a “See you tomorrow,” over her shoulder.

Carm doesn't even try to fight the grin and the, “Yeah, see you,” comes easy to her, not getting caught in her throat or mixed up. She's giddy all night.

Weeks pass, and their meetings stay within the confines of the library. Sometimes Ella makes jokes about how often she's there and sometimes Carm goes to work early just so she can be there when Ella arrives. They ask about each other's days and how they're doing and Carm would almost describe what they have as friendship. Carms suspicions about Ella's major are confirmed - Chemistry, minoring in Biochemistry (no wonder she's in the library so much) – and somehow Ella wheedles details of Carm's private life out of her (the names of her parents, what she majored in, why a pretty girl like herself ended up working in a library). It's a routine they settle into, quietly and easily, like they've been friends their whole lives. Actually, Carm would definitely describe what they have as friendship.

Out loud, at least. Inside she's got the distinct feeling that all of this is accumulating to something. That maybe Ella feels what Carm pretends she herself doesn't. The wave builds and builds until the day that it breaks. 

 

It breaks on a day not unlike any other. Carm's close to falling asleep as the clock approaches closing time, and it crosses her mind that she could just close the library early. It's been a quiet Wednesday, with no more than ten people in at any one time, and she's almost certain it's empty now. 

She's about to lock up when she realises that Ella was definitely in the library today. It's no special occasion, Ella's in the library most days, but today Carm didn't see her leave. She takes a final walk around, checking the tables secluded between rows of books, until she finds a figure hunched over one at the very back of the building. It's Ella. Of course it's Ella, with her face pressed in a textbook, snoring softly. 

“Ella!” Carm raises her voice a little but Ella doesn't stir.

She places a hand on her shoulder and shakes gently, but Ella's still unresponsive.

Carm looks at her watch. Ali invited her to dinner with her and Ashlyn, to get to know her, and if she doesn't leave right now she's never going to be ready on time.

She sighs, knowing she might regret what she's about to do. 

She does, but only for a second when she yells Ella's name and squirts her water bottle at her. Ella shrieks comically and jumps from her seat, and Carm only feels bad for a second, because the look on Ella's face does nothing to prevent the smile spreading across hers.

“What the fuck?” Ella looks almost angry for a second so Carm stops laughing abruptly. 

“The library's about to close.”

They stand there, just looking at each other for what feels like an eternity, before a smile starts to creep across Ella's face too. “You jerk,” Ella punctuates with a shove, but she's still smiling when she does it.

That smile sparks a confidence in Carm that's been present before, but never around Ella. 

“Let me make it up to you. However you want.”

“Dinner?” Well that was unexpected.

“Dinner would be great.” Ella grabs a piece of paper from her bag and scribbles something on it, handing it to Carm.

“Since this is an apology dinner for you scaring me to death, I expect you to pick me up, and at least pay for dessert.”

Carm grins at the page in her hand, an address. “It's the least I can do. Friday, seven o'clock. Be ready.” 

She's turning to walk away when Ella replies, “It's a date.”

She stops, half facing away from Ella and smiles so hard her nose crinkles, still staring at the paper. 

“It's a date.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: AU- Libraries! Books! Lesbians, oh my! Or, alternatively, someone owns a bookshop, nerdy adorableness happens when the other woman walks in. Gradual acknowledgment, and recognition, of feelings.


End file.
